Tag: products

So anyone who has read any of my book club post knows I love reading and this year I want to challenge myself. I have a lot of books that need to be read and no doubt I will get more to add to this list. So I decided to set a reading challenge. I decided to set mine on the goodreads app so that I can just keep track of what I’ve read how many books I have lefts to reach my goal. I set my goal at 25 books but Im hoping to read more. So I thought I would share with you some of the books I want to read this year. So here we go.

Body Positive Power by Megan Jayne Crabbe.

Blurb – Megan’s body image issues began when she was five years old and at fourteen she found herself spiralling into anorexia. After recovery she spent years dieting, binging, losing and gaining weight. Until she found body positivity and finally escaped the cult of thin. Now she’s determined to let as many people as possible know the truth: that we are all good enough as we are.

Megan Jayne Crabbe is known as bodyposipanda on instagram and is part of the body positive movement. If you have ever have struggled with hating the way you look or hating your weight then you need to look at her instagram and read this book. I am currently reading this book and I’ve never loved myself and my body more and I’m only 80 pages in. Everybody desires to feel sexy and beautiful and loved Megan really shows you that your just that. I’m so excited to finish this book and spread the love.

The first fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North

Blurb – No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, every time Harry dies, he always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life lived a dozen time before. Nothing ever changes – until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears his bedside.’I nearly missed you Doctor August,’ she says. ‘I need to send a message.’ This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.

This book really stood out to me because of the concept of rebirth. That when Harry dies his life starts again, he is born again. I have started reading this and I’m about 37% though but I am finding it a bit of a chore at the moment. To me its time jumps can be a bit confusing and there is a lot of scientific language which sometimes I have to stop and Google. But I will finish this book and I don’t like to let books bet me.

The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr hyde and other tales of terror by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Blurb – Published as a ‘Shilling shocker’ Robert Louis Stevenson’s dark psychological fantasy gave birth to the idea of the split personality. The story of respectable Dr Jekyll’s strange association with ‘damnable young man’ Edward Hyde; the hunt through fog-bound London for a killer; and the final revelation of Hyde’s true identity is a chilling exploration of humanity’s basest capacity for evil.

I really wanted to start and read more classic books and I love horror and more traditional horrors so I thought this would be a great start to classic as its sort stories to get me started to dive in to some of the other classic books I have to read. The other stories in this collection is The body snatcher, Olalla and A Chapter on dreams. There is also a part called Diagnosing Jekyll : the scientific context to Dr Jekyll’s Experiment and Mr Hyde’s Embodiment by Robert Mighall which sounds really interesting to dive into the science behind to story.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Blurb – Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear.

When I was in high school our English lessons were split in to sets from 1 to 6. The top two set were considered the smart ones 3 and 4 were middle and 5 and 6 where the people who needed some help. Each group of sets would read something different. I was in set 3 so I read Of mice and men (which I love), An Inspector calls, Romeo and Juliet and Jane Eyre (which we did not finish as most people in my group hated reading). But The top sets read The kill and mockingbird and Frankenstein and I really wanted to read them both but never got the changes. So now Im going to read both of them that I have wanted to read since high school.

The letters of Vincent Van Gogh

Blurb – Few artists’ letters are as self-revelatory as Vincent Van Gogh’s and this selection, spanning his artistic career, sheds light on every facet of the life and work of this complex and tortured man. Engaging candidly and movingly with his religious struggles, his ill-facted search for love, his attacks of mental illness and his relationship with his brother Theo, the letters contradict the popular image of Van Gogh as an anti-social madman and a martyr to art, showing a man of great emotional and spiritual depths. Above all, they stand as an intense personal narrative of artistic development and a unique account of the process of creation.

I’m not a massive art fan. I can appreciate a good piece of art but I never studied it and couldn’t tell you who’s art work it was (unless it was a really popular one). But ever since I listened to the podcast Do Go On and the episode about Vincent Van Gogh I was really interested in him and his life. During the episode they mentioned he and his brother would send letters to each other constantly that it was almost like his diary. When I was browsing Amazon and sure this book I had to get it and read his letters to get a insight into what he was thinking and his life from his point of view.

The keeper of lost things by Ruth Hogan

Blurb – Meet the Keeper of lost things… Anthony Peardew has spent half his life collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before. Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant Laura, the one person he can trust to reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners. But the final wishes of the keeper of lost things have unforeseen repercussion which triggers a most serendipitous series of encounters.

This book jump out at me for a very cute story but has a little bit of mystery to it like what promise did he brake and why did he start doing this. But I just drawn to this book and think it will make a great holiday read considering I will be going on a 9 hour flight there and a 8 hours back Ill have plenty of time to read.

For those that don’t know I love books (if you want to be part of my book club and read and review a book each month you can go here to find the latest one.) But I don’t just love reading them I love listening to them too.

When I was younger I remember getting some audiobook CD’s for christmas and listening to them as i went to sleep. I had All american girl by Meg Cabot, My secret unicorn by Linda Chapman and Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl. This love has followed me in to adulthood. I use Audible to listen to my audiobooks. (Im not sponsored but I really do love this service.) So I thought I would tell you my favourite audiobooks that I have listen too and which ones I would recommend. So lets get started.

Yes please – Amy Poehler.

If you like Amy Poehler at all I would recommend this book. This is her autobiography that is very funny and very true. She doesn’t hold back and doesn’t just give us the good things but she tells us her bad stuff but she is so honesty, true and funny about everything. I do have the book and was following along with he audiobook at point but I would recommend the audiobook as there are some stuff that in the audiobook and not in the book and because she is the one narrating the book it is very funny as she delivers the jokes that might not be as funny as if your reading it and don’t have her voice to deliver it.

Is It Just Me? – Miranda Hart

This is similar to the Amy Poehler as that it sound better because Miranda narrates it which makes the jokes land. I remember listening to this while trying to fall asleep but the jokes were so funny and the way she tells the stories and jokes were making me laugh so much that I couldn’t get to sleep. So make sure that you are in a place that you can laugh. You can relate to many of the things Miranda says in the book.

Any Harry Potter book by J K Rowling

Do I need to say anymore. The Harry Potter books are amazing but read by Stephen Fry there even better. That mans voice is amazing and really brings the books to life. If you are on the Audible subscription (there are ties Im on the cheapest on at £7.99) you get a credit a month. One credit equals one book so you could spend you credit on a Harry Potter book (which coast around £30) so you can save a lot of money on the books.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

This a great book by none other then John Green. This is a young adult book about finding yourself like many other of John Greens books. I did love the characters in this book and the story over all and if you like John Green books and haven’t listen/ read this book you defiantly should. The narrator Jeff Woodman tells the story brilliantly.

On the other side by Carrie Hope Fletcher

I have talked about this book in my very first book club which you can find here. I got the audiobook because I loved the book so much that I wanted to listen to it while relaxing and falling asleep. Carrie Hope Fletcher reads this book and you can just tell how much she loves this book. She narrates this book beautifully. I will defiantly be listening to this book again.

So there my top picks for audiobooks. If you have read or listened to any of these let me know what you thought about them in the comments. If you want to see more of me you can follow me on twitter @NicklessEllie and on Instagram @ellienickless (the buttons are on the side.) You can also follow the blog to get notified when I post next.

Today I decided to try and crate a possessed make up look. This is the look I created. So here we go.

So first step is the eyes. I started of doing the red base so I could build the black up as I need on top. So I used my Real Techniques base shadow brush and used it in this red colour ( called Freak out) from the MUA pallet silent disco.

I put this red all over the lid up to the eyebrow and actually round it to underneath my eye. Just making my eyes as red as possible.

Now we can and the black. Im using the black from this Revolution pallet called Flawless 2. Using the rounded end of this Studio brush I started applying the black to the lid of my eye and slowly building it up and around like I did with the red but I’m not going as far as the red as I still want the red to be seen.

Now the main eye is done Im going to do the cracking look that is underneath the eye. To do this I’m going to be using the same colour and using the Real Techniques fine liner brush. I start of my the red and just draw the cracking look that I want. This brush is good for doing this because it is thin and easy to control.

I do like the look of the red by itself but just looks like blood and I wanted to and a bit more creepiness to it so I do the same but with the black. I do start to over lap the black and red because I wanted it to look like something evil was coming out my eyes and cracking too.

I then moved on to the lips. I wanted to keep the same colours as I used on the eyes so I used MUA’s shade 13 lipstick. I didn’t put this all over my lips instead I just put it on the middle part of my lips.

Then to add the black I added MUA’s jet black eye liner to the conners of the lips and going back with the fine liner brush in the black I have been using just dusting it on the red parts to make it look like the black is merging with the red.

The final touch was adding black around my hair line, forehead, Checks and chin to give it a more death/ creepy look to it. Using My Real Techniques angled highlighter brush I used the same black as before to create this look.

And thats it my possession look. I hope you guys enjoyed this look. I also did a Beetlejuice look yesterday that you can check out. And if the halloween looks aren’t you thing I have done some Disney looks and normal looks to which you can check out.

If you liked this follow the blog to get notified when I upload next. Also give the post a like and comment what looks you would like to see next. You can also follow my social media (all buttons are on the side).

With halloween just around the corner I thought it would be fun to try out some halloween inspired make up looks. Today Im starting out with the ghost with the most and one of my favourite movie characters Beetlejuice. So lets get started.

So Im going to start of with the eyes. Im going to be doing them in the classic Beetlejuice colours green and purple. Im going to use the colour from this MUA’s pallet called silent disco. I will be using my real techniques base shadow brush.

I’ll be starting with the lightest of the greens called Rave. Im putting this all over the lid and up to the eyebrow.

I then add the medium green called Revel to the lid then add the darker green Wild to the conners of my eye. Once thats done I will be adding this dark green from my Wizardry and Witchcraft shadow pallet which I found on eBay.

I will be adding the green called potions with my studio double ended brush. I will be using the more rounded end of the brush as I find it easier to apply.

I will be applying this green like I would apply eyeliner so its just across some of my lid.

Now going back to the MUA pallet using the same press (clean the green of first), Im taking the purple colour called Electro. Again using the rounded end of the brush I am applying this under my eye. Going all the way along so it meets the green at both ends.

Then I just added some mascara to finish off the eyes. I am then moving on to doing my face. As Beetlejuice is dead and comes up from the ground he is rotting and he has a lot of green rot on his head. So Im taking the three green from the MUA pallet and using my Real techniques angled highlighter brush, I’m adding the greens to my head building up the “rot”.

Starting on my forehead and making my way down my face. Im manly doing this on my forehead because this is where he has the most rot in his look.

You can build up the greens anyway you like. If you have a darker green I would recommend adding that but I didn’t have one that wasn’t glittery so I stuck with the three in the MUA pallet.

I added bits of white from revolution’s flawless 2 pallet, just to add more paleness to the look as Beetlejuice is very pale as he is dead.

Then I used my finger in the black of this Gosh pallet called thunderstorm. I added this under my eye to give it a more dead feel.

I then mored on to the eyebrows. I used the studio brush in the purple I used before from the MUA pallet. I then added this all over my eyebrow.

For the final step I used MUA’s lipstick called Mulberry to add the purple. Then using the same green from the wizardry pallet and the studio brush I added the green to the lips to show the two colours of Beetlejuice.

And now for the final look!

This was a very fun look to do and I hope you enjoyed it. I will defiantly be doing more make up looks for halloween so stay tuned for that. You can follow the blog to get notified when I post next. You can also follow me on all my social media (buttons on the side). Also comment to let me know what character you would like me to do next and check out my other make up looks.

I apply this blue all over the lid and going up to just under the eyebrow. This blue is very light so I had to apply a couple of more times to build up the colour.

When I was happy with this base colour I took my studio duel eyeshadow brush (the brushy end) and added it to this darker blue called glam in the same palette.

As you can see this blue is also a bit glittery so will be great for creating our Sadness look. With the brusher end of the brush I started to fill in my eye up to where my crease in my eye happens. This brush makes it easy to draw the rounded edge I wanted. I then filled in the colour some more to make it darker.

This has made the two toned look that I wanted to show the different shades of blue that Sadness has.

I then took my Glam crystals gel liner in pow by Collection and draw a normal winged liner.

I created a thinner winged line compared to what I normal do but I wanted to keep the glitter minimal because she isn’t a glittery character its just the effect in her hair.

And thats the look. My simple Sadness inspired eye make up. I hope you enjoyed this look. If you have any characters you would like me to do a make up on let me know.

Be sure to check out my other makeup looks and join in with my book club.

Hey guys I recently got a subscription box from Japan called Kira Kira. This is a beauty box with all the products coming from Japan. I have always wanted to get a beauty box from Japan so I though it would be fun to review it. So here we go.

So this is the box that everything comes in. I though it was such a cute little box and I love the colours. The box was packed really well and nothing was damaged which is great.

The box comes with the little box that tells you what the products are and how to use them. I really love the design on this is so lovely.

So the first product is this really cute bath bomb.

The bath bomb is this bright yellow colour and smells slightly of honey. Inside is a little bear figure. I have always wanted a bath bomb with something inside and I think this is really cute. The bath bomb had a really good fizz on it which is what you want. One thing I didn’t like was that it turned the water a kind of pee colour. However the little bear that popped out is really cute and has a little hole that you could hook him on and hang him somewhere. Overall I really liked this product but would have liked it do be a different colour.

Next product was this Soy milk and yogurt face mask.

This is one of those full face masks which I do really like putting on. I had never heard of a soy milk and yogurt one before so I was very interested in how it would feel. This mask had a lot of moisture in it. After leaving it on for 15 minutes my face felt really soft and clean. There is a lot of extra moisture left after you take the mask of so I just rubbed it in to my skin. I really love this mask and it smelled great too.

Next is this body soap. This smells AMAZING! It smells like flowers and leaves you skin smelling fresh for a while. I love this so much that I’m using it as my special body wash (sounds strange I know but its too nice to use everyday.)

Next is this sponge. This sponge is made which Konjac which is a plant product so its all natural. This sponge is so soft that anyone could us it even babies. As someone with sensitive skin I have to try and find as many products as I can that are natural and kind to by skin and this is one of them. I tend to use this when I want to wash of any of my face products like my exfoliator. It also has a little string on it so you can hang it up.

Next product is this BB cream. I haven’t used BB creams before so I don’t have much have anything to compare it to but I do like this product. I tend to use a full cover foundation so I won’t be using this as my foundation but I like to use it as faec lotion. It is also a cute little size so would easily fit in any bag.

The last product is this very different face mask. You are meant to add the two different packets in to a bowl of water and when it starts to bubble you stick your head in for 3-5 minutes. I haven’t tried this yet because I don’t have a bowl big enough to put my head in to. This is a very different type of face mask and I will be trying it as soon as I get a bowl that can fit my head.

I love this subscription box and I think the products are really fun. Its really fun to use products from a different county and try something new.

So thats it for this post. You can follow me on all my social media (buttons on the side). You can also follow the blog to get an email when I post next. Hope to see you next time.